Best Punch Ever Landed?

BOXING ILLUSTRATED, Experts Contemplate: The Best Punch I Ever Landed! Part 2 By Scoop Malinowski We posed this question to several fighters: You have thrown thousands upon thousands of punches in your life. Is there a particular one that stands out as the best, most memorable punch you ever landed? Here are the responses: Arturo Gatti: "Wilson Rodriguez, left hook. When I knocked him and I couldn't see. It felt great, because I couldn't see really. I was in big trouble. It was my first title defense. And I ordered a car - that James Bond car - BMW Z3. That's how I remember. I had ordered a car, so when I went down in the 2nd round, I saw the car fly by...I won't be able to get this if I don't win this fight! Because I wouldn't be able to afford it. But then I knocked him out in the 6th so I said, Yeah! I remember that left hook was one of the greatest ever thrown actually. (How did you set it up?) To the body first, then to the head, that's it." Jesse James Leija: "I've had so many pretty good knockouts and good punches. As long as I hit you, I was happy . Maybe one of the better punches I threw was against Troy Dorsey. And I stopped him in the 5th round and it was a great fight up until then. Non-stop action. Then I caught him with an overhand right and stopped him. That's a punch I remember. Now Troy Dorsey and I are great friends. He even helped me with sparring for my last fight with Gatti." Kermit Cintron: "It was the right hand against Teddy Reid. It was like the perfect shot. That was the best shot I've ever thrown. Slipped a jab and came back with a right - hit him, stung him, then came back with a left hook-right hand. And that right hand - that's what did it. Perfect. Landed right on his jaw. Couldn't get any better. He just went down to the floor. That was it." Antonio Tarver: "Overhand left...Roy Jones. I hit him with the perfect shot. It's been labeled as the perfect shot. (How did you set it up?) He threw a lazy right hand and I stepped into it with my overhand left. And before he could get his hand back up, it was Good Night Irene ." Johnny "Bump City" Bumphus: "I can't remember the year, but I can remember the opponent. And that was Michael Bradley. I think in Lancaster, PA (in 1983). It was a right uppercut. Dropped him in the 1st round. And everybody thought the guy was gonna knock me out. I ended up knocking him down seven times in that fight. Right uppercut - dead on the chin. First round. But due to my dismay - or happiness - he knocked me down in the 2nd round with a straight right. But I went on to knock him down six more times and stopped him. If you want to know what it's like to get your bell rung, just spin in a circle, turn around and around till you can't stand up any more. Then lay on your back. And try to get up. That's what it's like when you get knocked out ." Mike McCallum: "The left hook to Donald Curry. It was one of the greatest knockouts in the decade. And it was one of the greatest fights that I fought. Donald Curry - he was a great man. And he hit me with a right before that in the 2nd round that...I was never hit like that before. And I was lucky to stay up, because I was in great shape. When he hit me, I said, You hit me hard! I'm gonna hit you back harder. That left hook was the most memorable punch I've ever thrown in my entire career. (How did you set it up?) Right uppercut. He was throwing a right hand. I threw a right uppercut then left hook. Because he was pulling back after he threw the right hand. I used that right uppercut, stepped to the side, came back with the left." Howard Davis Jr.: "My first 8-rounder - Dominic Monaco (4th pro fight). I fought him in Miami in 1977. And I knocked him down with a right and nobody saw the punch but the referee. When they did the replay, they still missed it. That's how fast it was. Even in slow-mo it was fast. It was a punch where he came forward when I was going forward. Most fighters raise their elbows when they throw the right and the opponent sees it. If you don't raise your elbows, they never see it. And my right hand was right behind the jab. The left-right is almost like one punch. If the jab is quick, it closes their eyes. Then they don't see the right." Bob Foster: "My favorite punch was always a left hook. I could knock out an elephant with my left hook. The Mike Quarry fight. Did you ever see the film of that? I was right, I was just perfect that night. I could've beat anybody that night." Tim Witherspoon: "When I knocked out Quick Tillis, which a lot of people don't know. I hit him with two right hands and he went down. But Anders Eklund was the most exciting one-punch that I ever landed. I knocked Anders Ecklund out with one punch. (How did it feel at contact?) It felt good. But I felt kinda bad the way he fell. It felt good in my hand, I felt it in all of my arm. But I felt kinda bad after seeing him go down." John Scully: "To tell you the truth, the single best punch I ever landed was in an amateur fight. I had lost in my first national tournament ever, the 1986 National Golden Gloves, when I got beat by a top-10 ranked guy named Kertis Mingo. When I saw him again almost two years later in the finals of the National PAL Championships I was so intent on beating him, I was almost maniacal during the fight. I walked him and chased him down for two rounds until I caught him at the end of the second with such a wicked and hard right hand that it was just like Julian Jackson always described his best shots. He said he 'didnt feel a thing' when he landed them and I didn't either. As a professional, I think it was against Herman Ferrar in Connecticut. I stopped him in the sixth round with the same kind of right hand and when I hit him I didnt know how much power it carried or how clean it was until he dropped in front of me. I was never a real 'puncher' in the true sense of the word but on those nights I was." Winky Wright: "No. It's just the amount of the punches all together. No one moment defines any specific point in my career. I'm defined over a whole career of fighting. Because I feel my longevity in the game and what I've accomplished in that amount of time, with all the obstacles that I had to overcome is what makes Winky Wright a great fighter." Felix Trinidad: "The right hand I gave to Maurice Blocker. Right when he went to the canvas. (How did you set it up?) It was a combination of six punches. Came all together. And the last one was the right. It was the punch that gave me the first title belt around my waist."